Facts

Scientific Facts in the Qur'an

Formerly, it was thought that mountains were merely protrusions rising above the surface of the Earth. However, scientists realised that mountains play a similar role to a nail or peg firmly holding down earth. For example, Mount Everest, the summit of which stands approximately 9 km above the surface of the Earth, has a root deeper than 125 km.

We placed mountains in the earth so that as it revolved with them you lived undisturbed. (Qur'an, 21:31)
Have We not made the earth as a bed and the mountains its pegs? (Qur'an, 78:6-7)
By fixing the Earth's crust they prevent any sliding over the magma layer or amongst the layers themselves. In short, mountains can be compared to nails holding strips of wood together. The fixing effect of mountains is known as isostasy in scientific literature. Isostasy is the state of equilibrium between the upward force created by the mantle layer and the downward force created by the Earth's crust.
Since the Earth revolves very quickly around its own axis, were it not for the fixing effect of the mountains, shifting of the split earth plates would make life impossible.

The Weight Of Clouds

The weight of clouds can reach quite astonishing proportions. For example, a cumulonimbus cloud, commonly known as the thunder cloud, can contain up to 300,000 tons of water.

The fact that a mass of 300,000 tons of water can remain aloft is truly amazing. Attention is drawn to the weight of clouds in other verses of the Qur'an:

Indeed it is He who sends the winds as harbingers of auspicious news announcing His beneficence, bringing heavy clouds which We drive towards a region lying dead, and send down rain, and raise all kinds of fruits. So shall We raise the dead that you may think and reflect. [7:57]

It is He Who doth show you the lightning, by way both of fear and of hope: It is He Who doth raise up the clouds, heavy with (fertilising) rain! [13:12]

At the time when the Qur'an was revealed, of course, it was quite impossible to have any information about the weight of clouds. This information, revealed in the Qur'an, but discovered only recently, is yet another proof that the Qur'an is the Word of Allah.

When the earth is convulsed with its quaking [99:1]
And the earth throws out its burdens [99:2]

According to geologists' calculations, as the Earth cooled, heavy and dense substances sank to its centre, while lighter ones rose to the surface.During earthquakes, the heavy substances below the surface have an opportunity to rise, and the Earth thus disgorges its burden, as revealed in the Qur'an.
Moreover, those regions where metal reserves are most concentrated are also those with the greatest volcanic activity. These scientific findings, which emerged only recently, and as a result of wide-ranging research, are just some of the scientific facts indicated by Allah in the Qur'an.

Locusts Moving In Swarms

A great deal of information was obtained about locusts in the twentieth century by conducting wide-ranging studies using micro-cameras. Locust swarms contain huge numbers of individual locusts that behave as a single body. Coming together in swarms that are kilometres long and wide, they look just like a dark cloud. It has been established, for instance, that a single swarm of desert locusts can cover 1,200 square kilometres (460 square miles) and contain between 40 and 80 million locusts per square kilometre. (1)

Up to 1,000 egg pods have been found in one square metre. Locust swarms are large enough to cover several hundred square kilometres, with the number of adult locusts per square kilometre varying from between 40 to 80 million. (2)

Their long underground existence and sudden emergence in vast numbers all at the same time may resemble the resurrection of human beings on the Day of Judgement. (Allah knows best.)

They will come out of the graves with downcast eyes like an expanding swarm of locusts. [54:7]

This verse describes all people's situation in the Hereafter as one resembling swarming locusts. Today, locusts are being studied by special units, which employ remote control imaging systems. Even NASA satellite data are used to identify areas in Africa where desert locust colonies have developed.

As a result of experiments he performed in 1973, Professor Benjamin Libet, a neurophysiologist at the University of California, revealed that all our decisions and choices are set out beforehand, and that consciousness only comes into play half a second after everything has been determined. (1)

The information that appears before our minds, in other words that we can be aware of, is transmitted to the cortex, the seat of consciousness, after a certain delay. (2)

This demonstrates that every thought, emotion, perception or movement happens before reaching our consciousness, and that proves that the future is entirely outside our control.To put it another way, we can only be aware of a decision after that decision has been taken. (3)

But you will not will unless Allah wills. Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise. [76:30]

In other experiments, Professor Libet left the choice of when the subjects would move their fingers up to them. The brains of the subjects were monitored at the moment their fingers moved, and it was observed that the relevant brain cells went into action before the subjects actually took the decision. To put it another way, the command "do!" reaches the individual, and the brain is readied to perform the action; the individual only becomes aware of this half a second later. He or she does not take a decision to act and then performs that action, but rather performs an action predetermined for him or her. Yet, the brain makes an adjustment, removing any recognition that the individual is actually living in the past. For that reason, at the moment we refer to as "now," we are actually living something determined in the past. As already discussed, these studies manifest the fact that everything happens by the will of Allah, as revealed in Surat al-Insan.

References:

(1) Benjamin Libet, “Unconscious cerebral initiative and the role of conscious will in voluntary action,” Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1985, 529-566.

(2) www.genetikbilimi.com/genbilim/bilincbeyninkuklasi.htm

(3)http://faculty.virginia.edu/consciousness/new_page_8.htm

It is estimated that in one second, approximately 16 million tons of water evaporates from the Earth. This figure amounts to 513 trillion tons of water in one year. This number is equal to the amount of rain that falls on the Earth in a year.

Therefore, water continuously circulates in a balanced cycle, according to a "measure."Even a minor deviation in this equilibrium would soon give rise to a major ecological imbalance that would bring about the end of life on Earth. Yet, it never happens, and rain continues to fall every year in exactly the same measure.

Who sent down water in due measure from the sky, then quickened a region that was dead. So shall We bring you forth. [43:11]

The proportion of rain does not merely apply to its quantity, but also to the speed of the falling raindrops. The speed of raindrops, regardless of their size, does not exceed a certain limit.

Philipp Lenard, a German physicist who received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1905, found that the fall speed increased with drop diameter until a size of 4.5 mm (0.18 inch). For larger drops, however, the fall speed did not increase beyond 8 metres per second (26 ft/sec).** He attributed this to the changes in drop shape caused by the air flow as the drop size increased. The change in shape thus increased the air resistance of the drop and slowed its fall rate.

Life on Earth depends on this water cycle. Even if all the available technology in the world were to be employed for this purpose, this cycle could not be reproduced exactly.

As can be seen, the Qur'an draws our attention to the subtle adjustment in rain which could not have been known 1,400 years ago.

Due to the different pressures caused by different temperatures in the atmosphere, air constantly flows from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure.

What is astonishing here is that, despite there being belts of very different temperatures and pressures, such as the equator and the poles, our Earth is not exposed to disastrously fierce winds.

There are signs in the changing of the winds, for people who can understand. [45:5]

Were the force of the winds that would otherwise blow between the poles and the equator not tempered, the Earth would become a dead planet constantly buffeted by tornadoes.

‎[45:5] وَتَصْرِيفِ الرِّيَاحِ آيَاتٌ لِّقَوْمٍ يَعْقِلُونَ

In the Arabic expression "tasreefi rriyah," in the above verse, the word "tasreef" means "turning over many times, directing, shaping something, managing, distributing." The choice of this word for the wind fully describes the way it blows in an ordered manner. It is also a clear expression of the fact that the wind does not blow by chance, of its own accord. It is Allah Who directs the winds in such a way as to make human life possible.

Countless air bubbles formed by the foaming of the oceans continuously burst and cause water particles to be ejected towards the sky. These particles, which are rich in salt, are then carried away by winds and rise upward in the atmosphere. These particles, which are called aerosols, function as water traps.

The clouds are formed from water vapour that condense around the salt crystals or dust particles in the air.The water particles that surround salt crystals and dust particles thicken and form raindrops, so, drops that become heavier than the air leave the clouds and start to fall to the ground as rain.

It is God who sends the breezes that raise clouds, then spreads them over the sky as He please, fold on fold, then you see the drops of rain issue from between them. When He sends it down to those of His creatures as He will, they are filled with joy. [30:48]

We must remember that meteorologists have only recently come to know these details about cloud formation.Every stage in the formation of rain is related in the verses of the Qur'an. Furthermore, these stages are explained in exactly the right sequence. It is evident that this information could not have been known 1,400 years ago.

The crust and the uppermost part of the mantle are divided into segments called plates.

According to the theory called plate tectonics, these plates move about on Earth, carrying continents and ocean floor with them. As the plates continue to move about, this will produce a slow change in Earth's geography.

You see the mountains you reckoned to be solid going past like clouds. (Qur'an, 27:88)

There is an important point that needs to be stated here: Allah referred to the motion of mountains as drifting in a verse of the Qur'an. Today, modern scientists also use the term "continental drift" for this motion.

Allah further describes this action in the following verse, stating that the mountains were going past like clouds. As has been indicated, attention is clearly drawn to the movement of the layer in which the mountains are fixed.

It was only at the beginning of the 20th century when, for the first time in history, a German scientist by the name of Alfred Wegener proposed that the continents of the Earth had been attached together when it first formed, but then drifted in different directions, and thus separated as they moved away from each other & that the Earth's crust "floats" over the mantle layer, which is denser.

This is another very important proof that the Qur'an is the word of Allah.

With its gravitational force, the earth pulls everything on it toward its center.

Thanks to the force of gravity that people are able to walk on the ground & stay where they are & satellites orbit the earth without flying off into space, and that the rain is able to fall.

Did we not make the earth a receptacle? [Qur'an 77:25]

Isaac Newton, regarded as one of the greatest scientists ever, investigated this feature of the earth in his book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica.The reference in the Qur’an to one of the earth’s great forces,is just one of the proofs that the Qur’an was sent down from the presence of Allah.

The electrostatic charge on the particle surface that appears after the water falls on the soil in sufficient amount would cause its instability and quivering movements.The soil particle's moving and quivering is also due to its collision with water particles. Since the water particles move in no specific direction, the soil particles move as they are struck from all sides.

Robert Brown, a Scottish botanist, discovered in 1827 that when raindrops fall on the soil, they cause a kind of shaking and vibration in the soil molecules. He described this movement of microscopic particles, which today is known as the "Brownian motion.

And you see the earth dead and barren. Then, when We send down water onto it, it quivers and swells and sprouts with luxuriant plants of every kind. (Qur'an, 22:5)

The reason why meteors make enormous craters on other planets but do no harm on Earth is that the atmosphere puts up considerable resistance to a falling meteor. The meteor is unable to withstand this for long and loses much of its mass from combustion due to friction.

Also, the large nickel-iron core is responsible for our large magnetic field.This magnetic field produces the Van-Allen radiation shield, which protects the Earth from radiation bombardment.The Van-Allen radiation shield is a design unique to the Earth.If the Van Allen belt did not exist, the massive outbursts of energy called solar flares that frequently occur in the Sun would destroy all life on Earth. The energy transmitted in just one of these bursts detected in recent years was calculated to be equivalent to 100 billion atomic bombs.(Dr. Hugh Ross)

And We made the sky a well-protected roof. Still they turn away from His signs! [Qur'an 21:32]

Who made the sky a canopy for you? [Qur'an 2:22]

He withholds the ether from falling on the earth except by His Leave.[Qur'an 22:65]

Allah thus informed us in the Qur'an of the world's atmosphere functioning as a protective shield.

Solar winds are powerful enough to separate the atmosphere from the Earth. (www.irf.se/press/press_010309eng.html)

NASA spacecraft researchers have obtained concrete evidence that energy explosions on the Sun cause oxygen and other gases to disperse into space from the outer layer of the Earth's atmosphere. (http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast08dec98_1.htm)

See they not that We gradually reduce the earth from its outlying borders?

Would they still prevail? [Qur'an 21:44]

These findings have helped us to understand the verse of Surat Al-Anbiyaa.The same fact has been repeated in Ar-Ra'd at 13:41.

One of the most important reasons for the great equilibrium in the universe is the fact that celestial bodies follow specific paths.

It has been calculated that even the slightest deviation from celestial bodies' paths could have drastic consequences which might spell the end of the entire system.

The Judgement will indeed take place.

[I swear] by Heavens with its cyclical systems [Qur'an 51:6-7]

The verse indicates this truth.

When a star has consumed all its fuel it collapses in on itself, eventually turning into a black hole with infinite density and zero volume and an immensely powerful magnetic field.

Black holes, however, do not just cause warps in space but also tear holes in it.

How will you comprehend what the night star is?

It is the piercing star. [Qur'an 86:2-3]

This yet again demonstrates that the Qur'an is the Word of Allah.

Another fact confirmed by recent findings is that matter constantly seeks the most stable state. Iron is the most desirable state of nuclear matter, and cosmological models predict a stage in which everything will turn into iron as a result of nuclear fusion and nuclear fission reactions. (Gribbon: In Search of Schrodinger's Cat)

Yet they say: "When we are turned to bones and bits, shall we be raised as a new creation?"

Tell them [O Muhammad (SAW)]:"Even if you turn to iron Allah shall bring you back (to life)" [Qur'an 17:49-51]

The facts revealed in the above verse once more confirm that the Qur’an is a divine text.

The motivation and the foresight to plan and initiate movements occur in the anterior portion of the frontal lobes, the prefrontal area. This is a region of association cortex. (Seeley:Essentials of Anatomy & Physiology, Mosby)

In relation to its involvement in motivation, the prefrontal area is also thought to be the functional center for aggression. (Charles:The Human Nervous System, Philadelphia)

And yet indeed if he does not desist We shall drag him by the forelock, By the lying, the sinful forelock. [Qur'an 96:15-16]

Thus the frontal part of the skull is responsible for planning, motivation, and initiating good and sinful behaviour, and is responsible for telling lies and the truth.

It is clear that the statement "the lying, sinful forelock" corresponds completely to the above explanations. Again, this fact which scientists have only discovered in the last 60 years, was stated by Allah in the Qur'an centuries ago.